It's a pretty safe bet that most developers outsource nigh of the art for their apps – programmer art is frequently said with a laugh for a reason!
Only with a little bit of know-how, a proficient software package, and some decent instruction, there's no reason that you tin can't learn to draw some of your own fine art for your apps.
In this tutorial, you'll learn to draw on iPad by making a cute alien brute. Along the way, you lot'll learn:
- Some dandy tips on creating a crude guide sketch
- Choosing and manipulating your drawing tools
- Calculation shading and highlights to your drawing
- And even sharing your masterpieces with the rest of the world!
Past the time you finish this tutorial, your skills in developer art volition level upwardly. So let's get started!
Getting Started
In this tutorial, you lot volition exist using an iPad app called Sketchbook Pro.
You lot might be asking, "What's the reason for using Sketchbook Pro? Why not utilize Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or even Wink?"
Skillful question. But unless you lot're a hardcore illustrator, you don't really demand to invest a lot of money in graphics software. Sketchbook Pro is really affordable, and is available on all of the major platforms (information technology also has a gratuitous version, which I'll get to in a minute):
- iOS ($4.99)
- Android ($four.99)
- PC and OSX ($59)
Some other great feature is that whatsoever Sketchbook Pro files created on 1 device can be opened on any other device that has Sketchbook Pro installed. For example, yous tin can starting time a sketch on your iPad and open it after your MacBook to add the finishing touches.
If you're not sure you want to pay for the app but yet, you tin can utilise Sketchbook Limited. It'south free, merely it limits the number of features, layers and tools that you lot tin can use. Its user interface is also laid out just a little differently.
You'll run across why upgrading is worth the price, merely you can definitely use the free version to follow along with nigh everything in this tutorial and see how nifty cartoon with Sketchbook is. I will point out the cases where Sketchbook Express is different then that complimentary users tin can nevertheless follow along.
Choosing Your Cartoon Instrument
To describe in SketchBook, you tin can either use a stylus or just your finger. For this tutorial, you will be using your finger, since I suspect that nigh of yous budding artists don't have a stylus all the same!
If you practice eventually decide to get a stylus, know that there are a lot of styli for mobile devices that range in price from $one to $100.
In my experience, you lot tend to get what y'all pay for when information technology comes to styli. I utilize a Wacom Bamboo stylus; it has a substantial feel and a decent length.
There are even pressure-sensitive styli that vary the brush stroke width by the corporeality of pressure you apply as you draw on the screen. Personally, I can't justify the loftier cost for these — I'd probably just lose information technology anyhow.
All right, so! Is your drawing finger all warmed up? Great – it'due south time to create your first crude sketch.
Creating Your Rough Sketch
Open upwards Sketchbook Pro on your device, and tap the "+" symbol in the upper-left to add together a new cartoon. Cull 768×1024 from the list of stage sizes displayed, as shown in the screenshot below. If you are using Sketchbook Express, you won't have a choice of sizes – it will just open a new drawing.
Yous'll notice that each phase size selection displays a number in a circumvolve. This refers to the number of layers that you can have in your epitome. The larger the phase, the fewer layers the device tin handle. Not sure what layers are in Sketchbook Pro? Y'all'll get to that presently enough — for now you'll start by creating a rough guide sketch.
Sketchbook Express users won't see the tools on the left, or the palette on the right. You volition but run across the toolbar on the top. The actress toolbars are really handy, but don't worry – yous tin can go by without them!
When many people see a cracking illustration, they ofttimes imagine the creative person drew complex shapes and lines from the start. Even so, this is rarely the case. All objects in a drawing tin be broken down into simple shapes, which is how you lot'll showtime creating your conflicting.
To start, select the pencil tool on the left (in Sketchbook Express you'll detect it by borer the brush icon at the summit, so choosing the pencil image) and draw an oval in the middle of your canvas. Information technology doesn't have to be a perfect oval; just loosely sketch a rough oval nearly the same size every bit one shown in the screenshot below:
If you lot're non satisfied with your oval on your first try, simply tap the undo button and try once more. You're non looking for professional quality here; you lot're just creating a rough guideline to represent the body of your creature.
Now describe iii crude circles to a higher place the oval to represent the eyes. Your drawing volition await a little like a paw impress, every bit shown below:
Again, don't worry about making information technology look groovy; these guidelines won't be in the finished product anyway.
Now connect the circles to the oval with some vertical lines. Direct lines in drawings convey a serious industrial mood. There's nix serious nearly this conflicting, and then join the shapes with curved lines instead to give your drawing a playful, drawing-like feeling, as shown below:
Now draw 2 circles below the oval to represent your alien'due south hands. Again, connect them to the oval using curved lines, every bit and so:
This alien looks to be in need of a tail. Draw a big, swooping curve off the left side of the alien's torso, equally demonstrated in the following screenshot:
Feel free to make the tail a little wiggly if you like. This is art, after all — in that location'south no difficult and fast dominion almost what an alien tail should wait like! :]
Inside the oval, draw a rectangular banana-similar shape for the conflicting'southward oral cavity, every bit shown beneath:
The banana shape should accept upwardly about half of the space in the oval. You lot'll be adding some details inside the alien'southward mouth later, so leave plenty of room to piece of work in in that location.
At present add together some smaller ovals to the ii crude hand shapes at the bottom of the cartoon, as demonstrated below:
These ovals will serve every bit the alien'southward fingers — assuming that aliens have fingers.
Now finish off your initial sketch past using some crude circles and curved lines to give the conflicting some pupils, teeth, a natural language and some cartoonish eyebrows. Your sketch should resemble the prototype below:
That does it for the rough sketch of your alien. Now it's time to build upward the image by using different layers.
Building Your Image With Layers
Layers are used to overlay bits of your drawing on each other, much like pieces of tracing paper stacked one on summit of another. Your conflicting sketch currently consists of one single layer with your rough outline. Since you lot'll need to get rid of these rough guidelines afterward without mucking up your finished cartoon, you'll add some other layer to your drawing that volition sit down on top of the guidelines.
Tap on the "Layers" push button in the upper-correct corner of Sketchbook Pro, so tap the "+" sign to add a new layer, as shown below:
The new layer is transparent, so you lot won't observe anything different about your canvas just all the same. But now you're free to become squealer-wild with your mad paint skills — without disturbing your guidelines.
Select the brush tool; if yous don't see it on the screen, tap and hold on a drawing tool in the left toolbar, then select the paint brush in the middle of the top row, as shown below. In Sketchbook Express, tap the brush icon at the superlative, and cull the brush paradigm shown below.
With the castor selected, tap on the "Properties" icon in the lesser center of the phase. This will bring up the Castor Properties window.
Tap and agree in the center of the properties circle, then elevate to the left and right to modify the brush size. Set the brush size to a medium thickness, around 7 pixels as shown in the image below:
At present trace the outline of your conflicting using the castor tool. Compression and zoom as required to brand the paradigm large enough to trace. Don't worry about the inside lines for now; just focus on making nice, make clean lines to outline your alien. Take your time; you can apply the undo tool if yous need to redo a brushstroke, or even if you need to revert all of your changes in this layer and utilize a different brush size birthday.
That's the beauty of using layers. The rough sketch is on the lesser layer; therefore, it isn't affected by annihilation yous do on the acme layer. Your concluding outline should look like the prototype below:
Now that the broad outline strokes have been made, you can trace some details on your alien. Open the Brush Backdrop window again and compress your brush size by a few pixels. Pinch and zoom as required to trace your conflicting's mouth, fingers, cheeks, mentum and arms, as shown below:
There's just a few very fine details left to trace to complete the outlines of your alien. Generally, the smaller the item y'all're trying to outline, the finer your brush should be.
Open the Brush Properties window and shrink your brush size down a few more pixels. This time, trace your alien's pupils, eyebrows, the lines under the optics, and teeth, pinching and zooming as required. Your final outline should wait like the post-obit:
Hey — that's looking pretty practiced! It'southward amazing how a few brushstrokes can take your drawings from uncomplicated guidelines to something recognizable.
Adding Colors to Your Drawing
You'll apply some other layer to add some colour to your conflicting. The benefit to using layers is becoming quite credible; each time you shift gears every bit you draw, adding a new layer allows you to preserve your work from previous layers.
Add a layer to your drawing, and position information technology between the sketch layer and the outline layer by dragging the layer to the appropriate position using the handles as shown below:
Your brush tool should all the same exist selected; if not, select it from the tool palette. Choose a nice alien green color from the colour palette on the right, as indicated below. Sketchbook Express users won't have a palette; tap the brush icon at the superlative and cull a light-green from the color mixer.
At present trace the inside of the alien'southward body with the dark-green brush. Yous may want to use a slightly larger brush for this step; if so, simply bring upward the Castor Properties window every bit before and make your brush a fiddling larger. You don't need to trace around the eyes or the rima oris; yous but need to trace the outside lines of the alien, as shown below:
The lines you've but drawn create a divisional area which you tin fill with color. If you're a sucker for punishment, you could fill the expanse by brushing in the colour, but there'southward a faster fashion. Tap on the brush icon in the top toolbar and so cull the paint bucket tool, as shown beneath:
Now tap inside the alien's torso. If you joined all of your lines together when you traced the inside of your conflicting, so the body should fill in entirely in green, as below:
If the whole stage turned dark-green, don't worry! Merely use the undo tool and brand sure that you're drawing on the correct layer, and that all of your dark-green brush strokes are continued. If you're wondering why the alien's mouth filled in with color, remember that you're filling the green boundary on this layer only; the blackness lines of the conflicting's oral fissure be on a different layer, and don't affect the deportment of the paint bucket tool.
Tap on the brush icon on the top toolbar again and switch dorsum to your paint brush; you're going to add color to spots that aren't supposed to be green. Change the brush color to white using the color palette on the right and pinch and zoom so the alien's mouth fills the screen. Now first carefully painting the alien's teeth white, as shown beneath:
Once your conflicting has some shiny white teeth that any conflicting dentist would exist proud of, use the colour palette to select a medium red color, and pigment in the alien's tongue. So select a darker cherry-red color from the pigment palette and paint in the conflicting's oral cavity. Finally, use a bit of blackness paint to fill up in the conflicting'due south pupils.
Your alien should look like to the following image:
A few advisedly chosen details can really bring your conflicting to life with a hint of personality. Add a few dark green liver spots to your alien's underside and some white highlights to the eyes, as detailed in the screenshot below:
That does it for the basic coloring — in the next department you lot'll take things upward a notch by adding some shadows and highlights.
Adding Highlights and Shadows
Although your drawing looks actually precipitous at this point, some highlights and shadows will give it a bully deal of depth and brand your 2d paradigm pop off the page. These small details are what takes your drawing from the apprentice level to something more than professional.
Potent contrast between calorie-free and dark tones is known as chiaroscuro in the fine art world — and that's merely what you lot'll add to your alien.
Add a new layer between the outline layer and the colour layer, like you come across below.
If you're using Sketchbook Express, you'll notice that you cannot add together another layer – you are maxed out at three. But this is no problem – you tin delete your original sketch layer since you lot don't need it anymore. Add a new layer as usual afterwards deleting your original sketch.
The paintbrush tool is far besides opaque to add gentle highlights and shadows to your drawing — the airbrush tool gives you the control you need to get the stroke opacity merely right. Select the airbrush tool in the tools pane on the left (Limited users tap the brush icon at the top to bring up the tools). If information technology isn't already in the pane, tap and agree a drawing tool and select the airbrush tool in the top row, second from the left, as shown below:
Showtime, add the highlights to your conflicting. Select a shade of green from the color palette that's lighter than the conflicting's main trunk color. Using the Brush Backdrop window, adjust your brush size to about 8 pixels. Elevate downwardly from the center of the window to lower the opacity of your stroke to near 50%, as shown below:
Now utilise the airbrush to add some highlights to your alien; don't worry about staying inside of the lines for now. Brush but inside the night outline of your alien on the right-hand side of your alien's major features, every bit shown below:
Note: Confused almost where the right spots are to add light? Check out Vicki's handy shading and lighting guide.
At present select a darker shade of green than what you lot used on the alien's body for the shadows. Again, no need to stay in the lines, but worry near adding the shading where it's needed. Airbrush along the inside of the dark outlines on your alien, every bit shown below:
Now, y'all can't really add a white highlight to white, and so you'll arroyo the eyeballs a little differently than the rest of the body. Pick a light grey from the color palette and add a shadow on the left side of the eyeballs, every bit shown:
To add some shadows and highlights to your conflicting's mouth, you lot'll need to create ii custom colors based on the reds you used to colour the mouth and tongue. To create a custom color, tap and hold on the top colour in the color palette. When the popup appears, select a darker shade of red by dragging the color selector down towards the lesser of the diamond. Sketchbook Express users will already have been creating their colors this way, since they don't have a palette.
Shade your conflicting'due south tongue around the edges with your new dark red color. Using the same technique as above, create a lighter ruby custom color past dragging the color selector upwards towards the top of the diamond. Utilise this color to add some highlights to your alien's tongue and mouth every bit shown below:
Your conflicting's teeth need same shading treatment that you lot applied to the eyeballs. Choose the aforementioned calorie-free shade grayness that you lot used to shade your alien's eyes and add together shadows to each tooth, as follows:
Your cartoon is just about complete; at this point you don't need the rough sketch layer anymore. Hide the crude sketch layer by opening the layers panel and borer on the eye next to the rough typhoon layer, as shown below:
This hides the rough layer from view, and shows only the finished parts of your drawing.
Adding Background Noise
Your alien looks a little lost against that plain white background. Time to add together a nice, organic-looking groundwork to your image.
Add a new layer underneath all of your cartoon layers except for the crude typhoon layer, which is now hidden.
If you are an Express user, you are again out of layers to add. However, you too don't accept access to the crosshatching tool we're nearly to utilise, so simply skip alee to the next department, "Cleaning Upward Your Drawing". Or read along and run into the cool things yous can practise if you become Sketchbook Pro!
To move your new layer, apply the handles on the side of the layer box to put it in the proper gild. Your layer stack should look similar the paradigm beneath (if you lot are using Pro):
The cross-hatching tool will requite you lot a squeamish textured groundwork for your image. Tap and hold a drawing tool in the tools panel and scroll over to the 3rd pane of tools; each pane is represented by a dot on the bottom of the window. Select the cantankerous-hatching tool, which is second from the left in the top row, as shown beneath:
Increment the brush size as large as it will go in the Brush Properties window and select a night grayness color from the color palette. Fill in the background of your image by making big, diagonal swipes on your image from the elevation-left corner to the bottom-right corner. Your image should wait similar to the screenshot below:
That makes the image look a little more finished.
Cleaning Up Your Drawing
Well-nigh done — all that's left to do is make clean up your drawing. Open the layers panel and select your shadow/highlight layer. Side by side, select the hard eraser tool; if it's not visible, tap and hold a tool from the tools pane, and select the eraser in the heart row on the far right every bit shown below:
Pinch and zoom equally necessary to better see the outline of your conflicting, and erase all of the shading or highlighting that bleeds across the lines, as shown in the example beneath:
Adjust the size of the eraser in the Brush Properties window to go far easier to get into those little nooks and crannies. Have your fourth dimension with this stride; the effort yous put into polishing your drawing will really show in the finished production.
Add together Your Signature with a Flourish
In that location! Your nifty-looking alien is complete — it but needs your signature so the world knows who created this masterpiece. Select an appropriate castor, pencil or pen tool and add your all-time glory-fashion signature.
Once you've signed your masterpiece, information technology'southward fourth dimension to salvage information technology and share information technology with the world. Tap the icon in the upper-left hand corner and and so tap Save, every bit so:
In one case your image has been saved, you tin press the "share" push button at the bottom of the app and export it to your Photograph Library, iTunes, Flickr, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, email, or even print it, as shown in the screengrab below. (Limited users will have fewer choices)
When you export your image, the private layer information is saved likewise so you can open upwardly your epitome on your computer and work on it Photoshop or Sketchbook Pro.
Recollect about the possibilities — you can sketch out your ideas on your mobile device or tablet during your daily commute, and and load it up on your computer later to add some finishing touches. Neat! :]
Where to Go From Hither?
Y'all've started to larn to draw on iPad, and have fabricated a cool alien – now is your take chances to play around and sketch some more!
If you're looking for some inspiration, why not endeavour drawing some characters from your favorite cartoons, video games, or comics? After all, practice makes perfect.
And if you lot'd like to see more in this series, please let me know what you'd like to larn to depict on iPad adjacent! And I'd love to see your own creations – if y'all make anything absurd, please post some links to your masterpieces in the forum discussion below.
DOWNLOAD HERE
How to Draw on Autodesk Sketchbook Ipad TUTORIAL
Posted by: josephbeemsee.blogspot.com
Comments
Post a Comment